Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to airborne drone delivery network and method of operating same.
Discussion of the Related Art
Companies such as Amazon, Google, FedEx, UPS and DHL are expressing interest in utilizing fleets of drones to deliver packages to consumers on an expedited basis from the time the order is placed to the time the goods are delivered to a business or residence.
Regulatory and safety issues as well as the limited range of state of the art drones such as helicopters, quad-copters, ducted fan and fixed winged aircraft are inhibiting the testing and adoption of such drone delivery services. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) currently does not allow drones to operate in the National Airspace System (NAS) without specific permissions known as Certificate of Waiver or Authorization (COAs) that are costly and time-consuming to obtain and furthermore are not guaranteed. To circumvent this, Google, for example, is conducting their drone delivery testing in Australia.
The idea of swarms of drones taking off from land and flying among manned aircraft and neighborhoods has raised concerns from regulators and from the general public alike. Even with permission from the FAA, the current flight duration of commercially available drones suitable for delivery into congested population centers and neighborhoods does not allow for a financially viable drone delivery network to operate.
To accommodate the limited range of today's drones, the operator of a drone delivery network would have to establish new distribution centers throughout neighborhoods at a cost that would negate any savings from utilizing drones. In some cases, drones could fly from current distribution locations of companies such as Amazon to reach a limited number of addresses that happen to be close by, but after reaching their delivery destination, would not have sufficient range to return to the distribution center for collection and reuse.
Accordingly, what is needed is a drone delivery network that overcomes the objections of regulators and the general public as well as allows operators to reach an expanded geographical area utilizing current distribution center locations.